Reorienting the Gwot to Win the Moral Level of War

by Reardon, David M.; School of Advanced Military Studies

• ISBN13: 9781479353309
• ISBN10: 1479353302
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-09-19
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub

Summary

This paper seeks to examine the changing nature of war and the environment in which it is fought. The fact that America is not applauding its successes at the physical level of war in waging the Global War on Terror (GWOT) and does not perceive the threat to be significantly diminished implies that there are other factors that are keeping America from the victory it seeks. This paper will identify two of these factors as the mental and moral levels of war and show how the changing nature of war and the environment in which is fought has also changed the function of these levels when it comes to achieving victory. The decline of the role of the state and subsequent rise of non-state actors employing asymmetric tactics against states has made the moral level of war dominant over all others, and this paper will seek to propose one strategy for America to achieve dominance over its enemies at this level of war. The objective will be to expand the "box" in which military thinkers rely on for solutions based on their experience, knowledge, and study of environmental factors to better understand changes in the nature of war and the environment in which it is fought. In doing so, it is hoped that they will come to see that the GWOT lacks moral legitimacy and America is losing the GWOT at the moral level of war. The goal is to convince military leaders of the moral shortcoming of the current GWOT, convince them of the need to reorient their approach to this war, and provide them the tools to reorient to the constantly changing environment America faces in future conflict.